©2008 Enterprise Management Associates
Don’t Lose Your Mind or Your Job:
What Executives Should Know About CMDB Projects
Chris Matney
Consulting Director of IT Services
Enterprise Management Associates
Slide 2 ©2008 Enterprise Management Associates
About Enterprise Management Associates (EMA)
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(CMDB)
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Slide 3 ©2008 Enterprise Management Associates
Agenda
• Putting the CMDB into context
• Definition and scope – WHAT?
• Process
• Value proposition – WHY?
• The cost of doing nothing – WHEN?
• What are your peers doing?
• What every IT executive should know about their CMDB project
• Top 10 Reasons CMDB Projects Fail
• 20 Things to do to Avoid Failure – HOW?
• Tales from the Trenches
• Wall of Metrics
• Metadata Disaster
• Questions and Answers
Slide 4 ©2008 Enterprise Management Associates
What is a CMDB system?
Slide 5 ©2008 Enterprise Management Associates
What is a CMDB system?
DynamicProactiveActiveReactive
1999-2005
2005-2008
2008-2010
2011-2013
Slide 6 ©2008 Enterprise Management Associates
Scope of the CMDB
Slide 7 ©2008 Enterprise Management Associates
Fitting the CMDB within the ITIL framework
Management Tools Business, Customers and Users
Service Desk
Incidents Queries Change Releases
IncidentManagement
ProblemManagement
ChangeManagement
ReleaseManagement
ConfigurationManagement
Service Reports
Incident Statistics
Audit Reports
Problem Statistics
Trend Analysis
Problem Reports
Problem Reviews
Diagnostic Aids
Audit Reports
Problems
Change Schedule
CAB Minutes
Change Statistics
Audit Reports
Release Schedule
Release Statistics
Release Reviews
Secure Library
Testing Standards
Audit Reports
CMDB Reports
CMDB Statistics
Policy/Standards
Audit Reports
Configuration Items
Incidents
Known Errors
Changes
Releases
Relationships
Slide 8 ©2008 Enterprise Management Associates
CMDB
Fitting the CMDB within the ITIL framework
Management Tools Business, Customers and Users
Service Desk
Incidents Queries Change Releases
IncidentManagement
ProblemManagement
ChangeManagement
ReleaseManagement
ConfigurationManagement
Service Reports
Incident Statistics
Audit Reports
Problem Statistics
Trend Analysis
Problem Reports
Problem Reviews
Diagnostic Aids
Audit Reports
Change Schedule
CAB Minutes
Change Statistics
Audit Reports
Release Schedule
Release Statistics
Release Reviews
Secure Library
Testing Standards
Audit Reports
CMDB Reports
CMDB Statistics
Policy/Standards
Audit Reports
Releases
Incidents
Problems
Known Errors
Changes
Releases
Configuration Items
Relationships
Slide 9 ©2008 Enterprise Management Associates
The Value Proposition - WHY?
Cost
Avoidance• Headcount
• Software and hardware
• Outages
• Compliance/Risk
Risk
AvoidanceIT Maturity
• Productivity
• Employee work-life balance
“A U.S. Healthcare Organization reduced
MTTR, downtime and outages by 40%,
realizing a 300% ROI over several years.”
“A US Financial Services Company provided a consistent and holistic services map with asset and inventories
updated nightly that greatly reduced domain expert pages and improved MTTR by 70%.”
Slide 10 ©2008 Enterprise Management Associates
Return on Investment
“Most IT organizations are willing to go forward with the
CMDB investment on softer grounds with respect to ROI.
This fits in with the CMDB’s role as a transformational
enabler for culture, process and organizational changes
which can show strong values, but for which the metrics are
more difficult to define.”
EMA research report, “CMDB Adoption in the Real World: Just How Real Is It?
Slide 11 ©2008 Enterprise Management Associates
The Cost of Doing Nothing – WHEN?
The Cost of Doing Nothing
IT Headcount
Slide 12 ©2008 Enterprise Management Associates
The Cost of Doing Nothing – WHEN?
The Cost of Doing Nothing
IT Headcount Business Growth
Slide 13 ©2008 Enterprise Management Associates
The Cost of Doing Nothing – WHEN?
The Cost of Doing Nothing
IT Headcount Business Growth IT Complexity
Slide 14 ©2008 Enterprise Management Associates
The Cost of Doing Nothing – WHEN?
The Cost of Doing Nothing
IT Headcount Business Growth IT Complexity CMDB
Slide 15 ©2008 Enterprise Management Associates
The Cost of Doing Nothing – WHEN?
The Cost of Doing Nothing
IT Headcount Business Growth IT Complexity CMDB Analytics
Slide 16 ©2008 Enterprise Management Associates
What Your Peers Are Doing?
Which of the following best describes your company’s current status for implementing a
Configuration Management Database (CMDB) to store your configuration information?
Slide 17 ©2008 Enterprise Management Associates
How Are Your Peers Doing?
If you had to rate the success of your company’s CMDB effort overall, how
would you rate it?
Slide 18 ©2008 Enterprise Management Associates
Agenda
• Putting the CMDB into context
• Definition and scope – WHAT?
• Process
• Value proposition – WHY?
• The cost of doing nothing – WHEN?
• What are your peers doing?
• What every IT executive should know about their CMDB project
• Top 10 Reasons CMDB Projects Fail
• 20 Things to do to Avoid Failure – HOW?
• Tales from the Trenches
• Wall of Metrics
• Metadata Disaster
• Questions and Answers
Slide 19 ©2008 Enterprise Management Associates
Top 10 Reasons Projects Fail – HOW?
“More than 75% of IT projects fail, either by providing too little
functionality or overrunning cost and time estimates.”
“Major IT initiatives are risky and oftentimes put an executive’s
reputation on the line.”
“You can’t sit still, and you’re afraid of moving forward.”
Note: My Top 20 recommendations will be highlighted in green boxes.
4. Executive Management Support
5. Follow Through
6. Process
7. Managing Expectations
8. Resistance to Change
9. Integration
10. Auto Discovery
1. Staff Buy-In
2. Staffing and Budget
3. Detailed Requirements
Slide 20 ©2008 Enterprise Management Associates
Top 10 Reasons Projects Fail – HOW?
4. Executive Management Support
5. Follow Through
6. Process
7. Managing Expectations
8. Resistance to Change
9. Integration
10. Auto Discovery
1. Staff Buy-In
2. Staffing and Budget
3. Detailed Requirements
“We are tactical, action-oriented people, and the CMDB is too strategic.”
“We live in the moment. We are very operations-oriented.”“Show me this isn’t a boondoggle.”“Most groups don’t respect what other groups do.”“I’m tired of getting paged out of a ballgame or
movie for information that is easy to find.”
“I am tired of being asked over and over for the same information about which servers my
application is using.”
“My plate is full. I need help automating routine tasks.”
IT Staff Profile
• Smart
• Problem Solvers
• Skeptical
IT Staff Challenges
• Overworked
• Siloed
Slide 21 ©2008 Enterprise Management Associates
Top 10 Reasons Projects Fail – HOW?
IT Staff Profile
• Smart
• Problem Solvers
• Skeptical
IT Staff Challenges
• Overworked
• Siloed
4. Executive Management Support
5. Follow Through
6. Process
7. Managing Expectations
8. Resistance to Change
9. Integration
10. Auto Discovery
1. Staff Buy-In
2. Staffing and Budget
3. Detailed Requirements
1. Develop a clear action plan. Under promise. Over deliver.
3. If you don’t believe in the plan, neither will the staff.
2. Involve all technology silos and business units.
Slide 22 ©2008 Enterprise Management Associates
Top 10 Reasons Projects Fail – HOW?
• A CMDB project is not a part-time effort within one domain silo
• You will need domain experts to make the project work
• Watch out for scope creep
• CMDB costs are not one-time, incremental expenses
4. An ideal CMDB “dream team” will have four primary roles.
6. Don’t include high-level analytics in your CMDB project budget.
5. Plan on backfilling positions to augment domain experts.
4. Executive Management Support
5. Follow Through
6. Process
7. Managing Expectations
8. Resistance to Change
9. Integration
10. Auto Discovery
1. Staff Buy-In
2. Staffing and Budget
3. Detailed Requirements
7. CMDB costs should be included in the base operating budget.
Slide 23 ©2008 Enterprise Management Associates
Detailed Requirements
• Detailed Requirements
clearly define your business
needs
• Most companies suffer from
a lack of focus on what the
value is at the ground level
for the CMDB
• Typical enterprises will have
several hundred detailed
requirements
4. Executive Management Support
5. Follow Through
6. Process
7. Managing Expectations
8. Resistance to Change
9. Integration
10. Auto Discovery
1. Staff Buy-In
2. Staffing and Budget
3. Detailed Requirements
Slide 24 ©2008 Enterprise Management Associates
Detailed Requirements
• Detailed Requirements
clearly define your business
needs
• Most companies suffer from a
lack of focus on what the
value is at the ground level
for the CMDB
• Typical enterprises will have
several hundred detailed
requirements
4. Executive Management Support
5. Follow Through
6. Process
7. Managing Expectations
8. Resistance to Change
9. Integration
10. Auto Discovery
1. Staff Buy-In
2. Staffing and Budget
3. Detailed Requirements
8. Develop Detailed Requirements.
Slide 25 ©2008 Enterprise Management Associates
Executive Management Support + Follow Through
4. Executive Management Support
5. Follow Through
6. Process
7. Managing Expectations
8. Resistance to Change
9. Integration
10. Auto Discovery
1. Staff Buy-In
2. Staffing and Budget
3. Detailed Requirements
“We are not good at first shot solutions. They turn negative quickly.”
• Management attention span is 6 months
• After this, project failures rise dramatically
• Short-term wins are critical to long-term success
• Many projects lose steam after a few months
“We need an iterative approach to our CMDB project.”
“We have a lack of political will and a reluctance to make it happen.”“We need to know the costs, scope
and have a solid strategic statement.”“The last big project like this failed
because the CTO left during the project.”“We are really bad at follow-up and training on new tools going into the infrastructure.”
“Our priorities change constantly. CMDB will be the hot topic this month with senior management.”
Slide 26 ©2008 Enterprise Management Associates
Executive Management Support + Follow Through
4. Executive Management Support
5. Follow Through
6. Process
7. Managing Expectations
8. Resistance to Change
9. Integration
10. Auto Discovery
1. Staff Buy-In
2. Staffing and Budget
3. Detailed Requirements
• Management attention span is 6 months
• After this, project failures rise dramatically
• Short-term wins are critical to long-term success
• Many projects lose steam after a few months
9. Break your CMDB project into six-month roadmaps.
11. Don’t tie your CMDB to yearly funding – it is a multi-year project.
10. Focus on small wins – big vision, baby steps.
Slide 27 ©2008 Enterprise Management Associates
Process
4. Executive Management Support
5. Follow Through
6. Process
7. Managing Expectations
8. Resistance to Change
9. Integration
10. Auto Discovery
1. Staff Buy-In
2. Staffing and Budget
3. Detailed Requirements
Which of the following best-practice frameworks is your company currently using?
12. Take a pragmatic approach to ITIL adoption.
13. Focus on core processes – Change, Configuration and Release.
We have talked about the
importance of process,
but what are your peers doing?
• ITIL Adoption is gaining
traction in the US
• A 2006 EMA research
survey showed only 35%
of IT execs had even
heard of ITIL
Slide 28 ©2008 Enterprise Management Associates
Managing Expectations + Resistance to Change
Expectations are managed through:
• Good detailed requirements
• Good communication
• Limiting scope creep/over-scoping
Change is good if it make life easier
• 90% can be brought by the “carrot”
• 10% will need the “stick”
4. Executive Management Support
5. Follow Through
6. Process
7. Managing Expectations
8. Resistance to Change
9. Integration
10. Auto Discovery
1. Staff Buy-In
2. Staffing and Budget
3. Detailed Requirements
14. Publish CMDB project information – website, RSS feed, town hall.
15. Continue making the CMDB an executive priority.
Important, but
not in scope.
Slide 29 ©2008 Enterprise Management Associates
Technical Issues
• Integration
• Auto-Discovery
• Reconciliation/Synchronization
• Promoting the Right CIs – “data for data’s sake”
16. Identify integration points – do your homework.
18. Auto-discovery and population of CIs is CRITICAL.
17. Make the difficult decisions about redundant tools and data.
4. Executive Management Support
5. Follow Through
6. Process
7. Managing Expectations
8. Resistance to Change
9. Integration
10. Auto Discovery
1. Staff Buy-In
2. Staffing and Budget
3. Detailed Requirements
19. Be pragmatic about data promotion – use detailed requirements.
20. Leverage the experience of your peers and experts.
Slide 30 ©2008 Enterprise Management Associates
Top 10 Reasons Projects Fail – Wrap-up
22%
16%
14%
12%
10%
7%
7%
6%
3%
3%
4. Executive Management Support
5. Follow Through
6. Process
7. Managing Expectations
8. Resistance to Change
9. Integration
10. Auto Discovery
1. Staff Buy-In
2. Staffing and Budget
3. Detailed Requirements
Slide 31 ©2008 Enterprise Management Associates
20 Things To Do To Avoid Failure – Wrap-up
1. Develop a clear action plan. Under promise. Over deliver.
2. Involve all technology silos and business units. If you don’t believe in the plan, neither will the staff.
3. If you don’t believe in the plan, neither will the staff.
4. An ideal CMDB “dream team” will have four primary roles.
5. Plan on backfilling positions to augment domain experts.
6. Don’t include high-level analytics in your CMDB project budget.
7. CMDB costs should be included in the base operating budget.
8. Develop Detailed Requirements.
9. Break your CMDB project into six-month roadmaps.
10. Focus on small wins – big vision, baby steps.
11. Don’t tie your CMDB to yearly funding – it is a multi-year project.
12. Take a pragmatic approach to ITIL adoption.
13. Focus on core processes – Change, Configuration and Release.
14. Publish CMDB project information – website, RSS feed, town hall.
15. Continue making the CMDB an executive priority.
16. Identify integration points – do your homework.
17. Make the difficult decisions about redundant tools and data.
18. Auto-discovery and population of CIs is CRITICAL.
19. Be pragmatic about data promotion – use detailed requirements.
20. Leverage the experience of your peers and experts.
Slide 32 ©2008 Enterprise Management Associates
Agenda
• Putting the CMDB into context
• Definition and scope – WHAT?
• Process
• Value proposition – WHY?
• The cost of doing nothing – WHEN?
• What are your peers doing?
• What every IT executive should know about their CMDB project
• Top 10 Reasons CMDB Projects Fail
• 20 Things to do to Avoid Failure – HOW?
• Tales from the Trenches
• Wall of Metrics
• Metadata Disaster
• Questions and Answers
Slide 33 ©2008 Enterprise Management Associates
Wall of Metrics
• Large banking customer
• Implemented management
dashboard
• No underlying reconciled data
• No CMDB
• No automation processes
• Extensively used
• Software/hardware purchases
• Employee bonuses
• Wall of metrics was worse than no
data -- it was bad data!
• Commonly seen in scorecards
and Service Level Agreements
Slide 34 ©2008 Enterprise Management Associates
Metadata Disaster
• Large insurance customer
• Implemented metadata
management solution
• No CMDB
• No automation processes
• Poor synchronization
• Rarely used
• Data didn’t agree with domain
experts
• Technical staff lost confidence
• Metadata program undermined
CMDB efforts
• Automation processes needed --
only include what you can keep
current
Slide 35 ©2008 Enterprise Management Associates
Wrap-Up
• Putting the CMDB into context
• Definition and scope – WHAT?
• Process
• Value proposition – WHY?
• The cost of doing nothing – WHEN?
• What are your peers doing?
• What every IT executive should know about their CMDB project
• Top 10 Reasons CMDB Projects Fail
• 20 Things to do to Avoid Failure – HOW?
• Tales from the Trenches
• Wall of Metrics
• Metadata Disaster
• Questions and Answers
©2008 Enterprise Management Associates
Thank you for attending today’s presentation.
Questions and Answers
For more information on EMA, please contact:
Bruce Lehman at 303.543.9500 x112 or